quote:Originally posted by LM-12:Is that the first time astronauts and cosmonauts were in orbit at the same time?

Yes it was.

LM-12

The joint flights of Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 launched a day apart in August 1962. It was the first time that two manned spacecraft were in orbit at the same time. Vostok 4 landed about 7 minutes after Vostok 3 on August 15.

The joint flights of Vostok 5 and Vostok 6 launched two days apart in June 1963. Vostok 6 landed a few hours before Vostok 5 on June 19.

There are interesting accounts of the Vostok flights in Encyclopedia Astronautica, including some post-flight debriefng comments by the cosmonauts.

Duke Of URL

Weren't there some early 70s Soyuz flights that did crew exchanges?

Tom

January 1969... Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 swapped two crew members from Soyuz 5 to Soyuz 4.

SkyMan1958

Gemini 7 and 6 in December 1965.

LM-12

Vostok 4 landed about 7 minutes after Vostok 3 back in 1962. How far apart were the touchdowns?

Blackarrow

I quote from my diary for Wednesday 19th December, 1973: "Yesterday a historic event occurred. For the very first time Americans and Russians were in space at the same time. The mission of Soyuz 13, unlike Skylab 3, is obscure."

moorouge

Very roughly Vostok 3 landed about 100 kms south of Karaganda, Vostok 4 landed some 300 kms to the south east of this town.

LM-12

Thanks for that. I think all six cosmonauts ejected from their Vostok capsules prior to touchdown and landed using their own parachutes.

LM-12

quote:Originally posted by Tom:Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 swapped two crew members

A similar EVA and possible crew member swap were briefly considered for the Gemini 7 and Gemini 6A flights. Schirra and Stafford were all for the idea, but Borman was against it.

Had Soyuz-1 not encountered problems on orbit which required what subsequently turned out to be a fatal return to earth, Soyuz 2 was planned to launch the following day with cosmonauts Bykovsky, Khrunov and Yeliseyev aboard. After linking up, Khrunov and Yeliseyev would have transferred to Soyuz-1 for landing along with commander Komarov. In which case the Soviet Union would almost certainly have lost three cosmonauts due to the faulty parachute system on that spacecraft, which may even have been fatally replicated in Bykovsky's Soyuz-2. The loss of Komarov was bad enough, but imagine the ramifications had they lost four cosmonauts aboard two spacecraft?

LM-12

A pretty ambitious flight plan for the first manned Soyuz flight. Those early Soyuz missions had some major in-flight problems.

Khrunov and Yeliseyev were the two cosmonauts who completed the Soyuz 5 to Soyuz 4 EVA transfer mentioned earlier.

The Soyuz T-4 cosmonauts were onboard Salyut 6 when STS-1 launched in 1981. By my rough count, only 19 of 135 shuttle flights launched when there were no cosmonauts in orbit.